Vol. 38, No. 2, February-March 2001
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Gov. Roy Barnes' political influence paid great dividends for the University System of Georgia throughout the 2001 Legislative Session, resulting in a highly competitive 4.5 percent merit-based salary in-crease for faculty and staff for Fiscal Year 2002, more than $200 million in capital projects, and funding for a number of special initiatives at the System and campus levels.
In all, the System received $1.73 billion in the FY '02 Budget, and an additional $6.7 million in Tobacco Settlement funds earmarked for the Governor's Cancer Initiative, which will be administered by the Georgia Research Alliance.
The $60 million-plus in funding for the merit-based salary increase will allow the University System to move up from fifth place among Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states in terms of average faculty salaries, and become more competitive - once again - with its regional and national peers. Nationally last year, the average salary increase was 3.8 percent, while in Georgia, it was 3 percent.
The Amended FY '01 Budget included $202 million in capital construction funding for the University System's campuses. The allocation included $92 million to construct six new projects throughout the System, $99.6 million for minor capital projects, and $9.3 million to fund equipment purchases for six projects funded in last year's capital cycle (see the list on this page for details).
In addition, a major change was achieved in the formulation of the University System's funding formula, first created in FY 1984, and fully funded for the first time in FY 1987. No improvements to the formula had occurred since. With passage of the FY '02 Budget, the new equation for the formula expands the percentage used to fund technology implementation and on-line services from 1.29 to approximately 1.70 percent.
Legislators supported $24 million in the Amended FY '01 Budget in formula funding for the University System and another $18 million for FY '02.
Amended Budget funds must be expended by June 30. Fiscal Year 2002 allocations take effect beginning this July 1 and run through June 30, 2002. ¶
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The following are University System capital projects funded by the Georgia General Assembly in the FY 2001 Amended Budget.
Major Capital Projects
Minor Capital Projects
Other Projects
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Four of the University System of Georgia's new eCoreTM courses have been designated as exemplary courses by WebCT, a company that provides course management software to colleges and universities worldwide offering on-line learning. Two additional e-courses developed separately by faculty members at Georgia College and State University also have won this coveted distinction.
WebCT provides educators with web pages, e-mail and Internet resources to use in setting up on-line courses, along with bulletin boards, chat rooms, on-line testing and other tools.
The WebCT Exemplary Course Project spotlights courses that make the most of the on-line learning environment. This year, 16 courses offered by colleges, universities, K-12 schools and training programs around the world were selected as finalists in the competition after meeting faculty-developed academic rigor and content criteria. There were a total of 85 entries.
The University System's eCoreTM courses earning the distinction of WebCT exemplary courses -- American Government, English Composition I, Mathematical Modeling and Survey of U.S. History to 1865 -- are representative of the eight eCoreTM courses available to USG freshmen and sophomores last fall, and were evaluated independently, according to Kris Biesinger, assistant vice chancellor for Advanced Learning Technologies. Each course was developed by a team of six faculty members from a variety of USG institutions.
Two GC&SU on-line offerings -- Informatics Issues and Applications for Health Care Delivery developed by Jeanne Sewell and Leadership and Management in Healthcare Services by Deborah J. Clark -- also were named exemplary courses. Both women are GC&SU assistant professors of health care systems and informatics.
" We couldn't be more pleased," Biesinger said. "The rigorous criteria used to select the WebCT Exemplary Courses validate the University System's collaborative course development process, which involves many individuals and results in quality, accessible, interactive on-line courses."
Georgia G.L.O.B.E. (Global Learning Online for Business and Education) is marketing four additional eCoreTM courses that will be available this summer, bringing the total number available to 12. Biesinger added that the selection of six USG courses for this international honor "recognizes the valuable investment the System has made in preparing faculty to utilize technology successfully in the development of meaningful educational experiences."
Among the criteria the WebCT Exemplary Course Project's faculty evaluators looked for were strong indications that courses:
WebCT has invited USG representatives to present papers and participate in panel discussions at its Third Annual Users Conference, to be held in Vancouver in June. An audio-visual presentation on the winning courses featuring interviews with USG course creators will be shown during the event. In addition, portions of the courses will be featured on the company's website (www.webct.com), and the course creators have been invited to take part in on-line discussions about their work. ¶
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Two new four-color publications from the Board of Regents' Office of Media and Publications have been sent to each campus in the University System of Georgia and are available online. The System's FY 2000 Annual Report, titled "Setting the Standard," has been distributed to USG employees. Limited quantities of the second publication, "Campuses of the University System of Georgia," are available from the public relations office at each institution. The campus booklet showcases the unique strengths and characteristics of each institution and outlines the System's new minimum admissions requirements. The publication also includes information on the HOPE Scholarship Program, the HOPE and PROMISE scholarships for teachers, and two System web sites that provide valuable services, Georgia G.L.O.B.E. and GeorgiaHire.com. Look for these publications, along with The System Supplement and Legislative Update, on the University System's website at www.usg.edu/pubs/ ¶
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On CampusGeorgia State University recently transferred the state senate papers of the late U.S. Sen. Paul D. Coverdell to Georgia College and State University's Russell Library. The transfer completes GC&SU's collection of official papers, records, videotape, photographs and memorabilia representing Coverdell's 30 years of public service as director of the Peace Corps, a state senator and a U.S. senator.
Coverdell's relationship with GC&SU began in 1990, when the college launched a program training former Peace Corps volunteers to become teachers in rural Georgia school systems. In 1997, the senator officially donated his Peace Corps papers to the college. In 1999, he agreed to add his U.S. senatorial papers to the collection. In accordance with Coverdell's wish to consolidate the collection, papers and memorabilia representing his nearly two decades as a state senator were transferred to GC&SU following the senator's death last July.
Still available to the public through Georgia State's Special Collections Department are three extensive taped interviews with Coverdell conducted in 1989 and 1990. Transcripts of the interviews soon will be part of the GC&SU collection. ¶
Julia M. Young, department head at Georgia State University's Special Collections and Archives, and GSU Librarian Charlene Hurt recently met with Georgia College and State University librarian Bill Richards and Lamonica Sanford, GC&SU Special Collections archival associate, to sign papers sealing the transfer of Coverdell's papers.
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Darton College has partnered with some of Albany's leading industries to train their employees through the college's new Southwest Georgia Corporate Education Center.
Dr. James Johnson, Darton's director of corporate training, believes the pilot program to be the first of its kind in the country. Corporate partners -- which presently include the Cooper Tire and Rubber Company, M&M/Mars and Merck Company -- will receive customized training for their employees in topics such as managerial leadership, OSHA regulations and computer programming at Darton College from nationally known instructors recruited from the American Management Association. By pooling resources with the college, the center's corporate partners will save more than 30 percent of the normal cost of business training, Johnson said.
"These companies could send their workers to somewhere like Orlando, Fla., to receive training, or I can arrange to have the same person lead classes at Darton," he said, adding that there is no need to spend money on marketing the courses, as they will be offered only to employees of the participating companies.
In addition to customized training, employees of the corporate partners will receive a 30 percent discount on most of Darton's standard continuing education course offerings. ¶
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Last June 19, some 2,100 tired, sweaty two wheelers pedaling their way from Eufala, Ala., to Savannah on the annual Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG) found food, shelter for the night and a warm welcome at South Georgia College.
Now comes word that BRAG 2000 participants voted the SGC campus as their favorite host site and the City of Douglas as their favorite host town on the six-day journey.
"We all enjoyed our visit to your beautiful campus and town, and we hope you will have us back again," said Jerry J. Colley, director of BRAG, in announcing the cyclists' decision.
This was the second time the ride had made stops in Douglas and at SGC. "We've become accustomed to hosting large groups, having housed 1,000 officers from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick during Hurricane Floyd in September 1999," said Tom Smith, South Georgia's director of college relations and advancement. ¶
Three of six national scholarships recently awarded by the Lambda Beta Society, the honor society of the respiratory therapy field, went to students at the Medical College of Georgia.
The three MCG recipients are Edith Martin, Kelly Ritchie and Rachel Robertson, all of whom will earn bachelor's degrees in respiratory therapy this spring. Ms. Martin also won the American Respiratory Care Foundation's 2000 Robert Lawrence Education Award. ¶
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The gooey slime that oozes from boiled okra might be the latest weapon in the battle to make fatty foods better for you.
A new study by Georgia Southern University researcher Joelle Romanchik-Cerpovicz shows that brownies prepared with an extract from the Southern summer vegetable are an acceptable and healthy alternative to regular-fat brownies for people wanting to reduce their dietary fat intake. And no, they don't taste or smell like okra.
The study was presented at the 2000 American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference and Exhibition in Denver, Colo. Findings appeared in the September supplement of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
When boiled, okra exudes a thick, oily substance that is usually discarded before serving. The extract's close resemblance to cooking oil gave the assistant professor of nutrition and food science the idea of using the "okra ooze" as a fat substitute.
Romanchik tested her theory by substituting the extract for all of the margarine and the majority of the egg in an otherwise high-fat brownie recipe. The "okra brownies" are fat free. While Georgia Southern students who taste-tested them didn't rate Romanchik's concoction as high as the real thing, they found the okra brownies acceptable, Romanchik said.
She plans to continue her research on okra extract as a fat substitute with the help of Georgia Southern undergraduates Ranelda Tilmon and Karen Baldree. ¶
Glenn S. White
Lawrenceville
CHAIR
Hilton Hatchett Howell, Jr.
Atlanta
VICE-CHAIR
Juanita Powell Baranco
Lithonia
Hugh C. Carter, Jr.
Atlanta
Connie Cater
Macon
Michael J. Coles
Kennesaw
Joe Frank Harris
Cartersville
John Hunt
Tifton
Charles H. Jones
Macon
Donald M. Leebern, Jr.
Columbus
Allene H. Magill
Dalton
Elridge W. McMillan
Atlanta
Martin W. NeSmith
Claxton
J. Timothy Shelnut
Augusta
Joel O. Wooten, Jr.
Columbus
James D. Yancey
Columbus
Stephen R. Portch
CHANCELLOR
Gail S. Weber
SECRETARY TO THE BOARD
William R. Bowes
TREASURER
The System Supplement
Arlethia Perry-Johnson
ASSISTANT VICE CHANCELLOR
John Millsaps
COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING DIRECTOR
Diane Payne
PUBLICATIONS EDITOR
OFFICE OF MEDIA & PUBLICATIONS
270 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30334
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